Jack Harries and Farhana Yamin Discuss Climate Activism

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: What do you on the streets fight for today?

JACK HARRIES, EXTINCTION REBELLION ACTIVIST: Extinction Rebellion have three central demands. The first is to act now. So, that’s for governments to acknowledge the crisis we’re in and act on it.

AMANPOUR: Of course, they do, though.

HARRIES: They are acting but they’re not taking the right measures, the measures they need to. They’re not acting enough, right. We’re not on track to — with the Paris agreement. Experts tell us there’s a — I think (INAUDIBLE) climate change, I’m sure you’re aware of it, the world’s leading experts gather together in the IPC. They say, we’ve got just 12 years to limit temperature rise to no more than 1.5 degrees if we want to a habitable future on this planet. Currently, the temperature is at 1.1 degrees more. So, that’s just .4 of a degrees more. Currently, we’re not on track for that at all. We’re on track for 2 or 3 degrees of warming. And what that means, if we hit 2 or 3 degrees warming, it means no one my age has a future, they don’t have habitable future on this planet. And if you’re a young person, as we’ve seen Greta Thunberg, I think that gives you a right to be angry and to demand a habitable future. I think any person my age would agree with that. That’s a right, a human right that we have.

AMANPOUR: So — yes?

FARHANA YAMIN, EXTINCTION REBELLION ACTIVIST: Yes. I think very specifically here in the U.K., governments need to enhance what their actions and policies right now. They are so far behind. They are legally binding carbon budgets. The U.K. is not meeting its own legally, you know, mandated budget for the next five years and the five years after that. So, it’s no good having a nice goal for 2050 if you’re failing with the five-year progress points put in place in our domestic legislation and also demanded by Paris. So, that’s what the protest all over the world are about. You’re aware the U.N. secretary general asked countries and heads of state to come forward with their next Paris commitments which are due next year. It’s already five years — Paris is already five years old. And not many of the big countries have come forward with commitments. They’re all back sliding, actually, which has not been intent to Paris.

AMANPOUR: Tell me something because I find this very interesting and weirdly or maybe not weirdly, but a lot of the media attention, a lot of interviews, even today around what you’re doing in the streets actually focus on the security and focus on whether you should actually be out there doing these things to get you arrested. I mean, I’ve read out what Extinction Rebellion says, you know, it’s about rebelling and some have said it’s about disruption, that’s the whole point, arrests are the point. They’re not just a by-product. So, both of you, and maybe it’s the same rebellion movement, have actually got yourselves arrested. You glued yourself outside Shell headquarters. You glued yourself or you did something, right?

HARRIES: Yes, the agreements. Yes. The International Petroleum Corp.

AMANPOUR: Yes. Just can you tell, how do you get the glue off? How do they —

YAMIN: They worked very hard with solvents and sort of a — you know —

AMANPOUR: The police?

YAMIN: — cut through and to very gently remove that. So, it is the —

AMANPOUR: This is the police?

YAMIN: The police.

AMANPOUR: Yes.

YAMIN: And they were — you know, took great care to not injure people. So, I think in this country, you know, we are fortune that we have policing, which is — enables protests to take place.